HC Deb 15 February 1983 vol 37 cc143-4
3. Mr. Edwin Wainwright

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will increase the resources available to the Trent regional health authority in order that the Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley health authorities may maintain adequate hospital standards.

The Minister for Health (Mr. Kenneth Clarke)

We have recently announced revenue allocations to regional health authorities, which give Trent RHA an additional £17 million for development next year. That is a growth rate for services of 2.4 per cent. as against a national average of 1.2 per cent. The Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham health authorities will all benefit from this.

Mr. Wainwright

Is the Minister aware that, because of the lack of adequate means, the quality of hospital services at the Montagu hospital has been deteriorating and looks like deteriorating further? Will he bear in mind that, despite what he has granted to the three health authorities, the quality of services for the mentally handicapped is far below the standard that it should be in that part of the country?

Mr. Clarke

As the hon. Gentleman knows, the health authority is giving high priority to improving services for the mentally handicapped. The regional health authority has decided to keep the Montagu hospital open as an acute hospital. It falls within the territory of the Doncaster health authority, and yesterday that authority received development moneys of almost £500,000 for next year, in addition to the growth moneys it has already had under the Government. I am confident that it will be able to produce worthwhile plans for the future of the Montagu hospital.

Mrs. Knight

Since it is now widely accepted that there is a great deal of waste and a serious mis-use of funds within the National Health Service, will my hon. and learned Friend make absolutely certain that, before substantial grants and funds are advanced, each regional authority examines this aspect of its work carefully?

Mr. Clarke

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend that there are two sources of resources for further improvement in the Health Service. The first is the additional money that the Government are continuing to make available, as I have just described. The second is to keep searching for ways of making better use of existing resources and increasing efficiency. We exhort regional authorities to do that at the same time as we allocate to them these new growth moneys.

Mr. Kilroy-Silk

Will the Minister explain what the Trent regional health authority has done with that £2 million of the special revenue allocation that he has given for the provision of regional secure psychiatric units, but which has not been spent on psychiatric services or on improving security in psychiatric hospitals and which lies unexplained and unaccounted for in its accounts?

Mr. Clarke

Hon. Members on both sides of the House regret that moneys that were allocated for regional secure units have, in many cases, been used for other purposes. I am glad to say that worthwhile progress is now being made in the regional secure unit programme. I shall happily give details to the hon. Gentleman if he tables a specific question or writes to me about it.